Way Back When
by ValorieJueles
Summary: Albus Dumbledore back in his school days, before he knew everthing about how to survive in the magical world, and how to keep your cool facing evil wizards. Enter the interesting Marie, a friend of his otherwise unremarkable save for an interesting surnam


Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the blood sucking glartblac. Actually, not even since he's based on a friend of mine.

Author's Note: Hey peeps, this is my first fanfic ever so you're going to have to live with your issues with it. I, like the girl a made up for this, am not currently in pursuit of perfection. But seriously, i'm looking for people to tell me where this should go. I have my own ideas, or I wouldn't be writing this, but always interested in what other people think my characters would do or say. And also, this is not the final word on how young Dumbledore is going to turn out. He evolves. La dee da, tell me what you think, flame away if that's what makes you happy, but remember that the mental stability of one teenage girl rests in your hands... JK I'm gonna stop blabbering now.

A boy sat alone his shoulders being jostled slightly with the motion of the train. His mop of whimsically tangled hair appeared reddish in the clear beam of light that shone through the window beside him, casting a clean line of light on his seat, and cutting the thin wooden stick that lay there in two. It was a very still, nostalgic scene, despite the rocking, with a boy guilty of possessing every stereotypically boyish trait right down to the spattering of freckles across his nose, staring steadily, almost wide- eyed out the window. Pasture and sheep flicked past the train like a movie from the era when anyone who went knew why they were called "flicks" as the train moved towards its destination at the end of the track.

Now, for the purpose of this story, time moved quickly, and with a flick of the my keyboard the passengers were there, but to those aboard it was a long trip, time moved slowly, because even for restless teenagers, there is only so much you can do on a train. And for the boy who this story concerned, with his eyes and his mind firmly out the window, time moved not at all, because those who can live suspended in their thoughts as he could, are so comfortable there they need not be bothered by passing hours of the day.

In a less glorified sentence, he was spacing out.

When the train ground to a halt in a misty station surrounded by tall trees whose leaves disappeared into the mist above leaving only the thick trunks to be seen, that was when our hero finally snapped out of it. Students in black robes were filling the corridor outside his compartment talking loudly and generally making it hard for anyone at all to get off the train. The boy stood up and took a deep breath. He was nervous, but who wouldn't be? It was his first year at Hogwarts, which would be intimidating enough if it weren't a school of magic with a slightly dubious history when it came to accidents. He knew no one, and he had had the bad luck to be the last one on the train and therefore stuck with the last empty compartment alone. Just brilliant.

Ironically, having just thought this as he moved to the sliding door, it burst open. A dark red blur whipped in and slid the door closed with a satisfying clack. The girl, for thats what the blur turned out to be, a girl with shockingly dark red hair, quickly slid down to her but with her back to the door, let out a quick burst of air to blow a bang from her face and smiled sheepishly.

"Thank God, I felt sure this would be a, I dunno, fifth year Slytherin compartment and wouldn't that have been awkward"

The boy just stared at the disheveled girl his age crumpled up beside his compartment.

The girl's smile faded slightly in the prolonged pause, not sure how the strange boy would react to the rambunctious girl slamming into his compartment.

"Er..." she started, an apology planed out on her lips.

The boy burst out laughing at her.

She joined in, if only because she hated silence. Hell, she didn't have a problem laughing at herself if it avoided an awkward situation.

"I suppose you'd like to know what the heck I'm doing here?" she bubbled out, completely aware of how odd she looked.

"That might be nice" admitted the boy with a mildly sarcastic grin.

"long story"began the girl.

"Figured" said the boy.

"First, I'm Marie" said the girl.

"'m Bus" grunted the boy.

"Bus?!?" Marie repeated with gleeful disbelief in her voice "Your name is Bus!?!" Her face was the picture of enjoyment now, as if she had never before had quite a rapturous conversation as the one she now shared with this tall boy.

"yeah it's short for Albus" defended Bus with a hurt voice, intended only to provoke an apology.

"Well Albus is even worse" exclaimed the girl delighted, readjusting her position against the door. "you could at least have gone with Al or something as a nickname, at least people wont take you as a form of public transportation"

"I hate the name Al"

"So you opted for Bus?"

"Marie."

"Yeah Bus?"

"Shut up and tell the story."

"How am I supposed to do that? Keep my mouth shut and tell the entire complicated sequence of events that led to my arrival in your compartment as the train was emptying." She grinned, hopeful for a reaction to her little joke. Nothing.

"Anyway, I was simply trying to get off the train, when it came to the attention of a certain cousin of mine that I was on the train. He's in third year, and lets just say he's going through and awkward stage, well anyway, he spent the entire train ride introducing me to his friends, who I really don't want to know, and I know this sounds horrible but it's completely justified, let me tell you, when I got my first opportunity to ditch him I just had to do it, because I mean _come on_, this guys so boring he actually got excited that his two year younger cousin was going to be going to school with him. I don't even know him that well, and I mean really kid, make your own friends! Anyway, when people started ditching this train, I just made a break for it. And once I started it would have been fifty times worse if he'd caught me running away than if he just thought I'd disappeared, and he had me cornered with a solid wall of people ahead and only your door right there so I kinda just slipped in, ya know? and then I saw you and yeah well, thats the story nothing spectacular."

She said it so quickly you'd think that if she didn't get the entire thing out in world record time then she'd lose her entire audience. She grinned apologetically at the end, as though she didn't want to offend Bus by making him listen to her stupid little story. You could tell she was still a little embarrassed from just busting in. But something else in her manner dared you to comment, 'cause embarrassed as she was, Bus got the impression that a blood sucking glartblac wouldn't have stopped her doing as she pleased once she had her guard up. He just couldn't get a read on her.

Grasping for something to say after the torrent of words and excessive use of filler words, Bus glanced up at the window on the door. His stomach attempted some complicated gymnastic moves, failed, and ended these complex feelings of horror by screaming like a girl. No on was left on the train!

Marie, not being able to see that, as she sat on the floor with her back to the door, merely looked at the interesting color show that was Bus's face with bemused interest.

"They're gone!" He bumbled stupidly.

"Yes I hadn't figured that Nigel would have stuck around looking for me quite so long, even if he is a little overbearin..."

"No you idiot! We're the last to people on this train the rest of them have already gotten off."

Marie swung forward onto her feet, steadying herself on the door before looking out the window. Mouth open with disbelieving laughter she looked at Bus.

"Oh, Oh, that can _not_ be good!"

Bus was horrified. All he wanted was to make a good impression, not stand out to much. That was shot. He didn't even have an interesting reason for his delay. He would arrive, wherever they took the first years first, late with no good explanation. He was going to be that weird kid. Well, he thought sarcastically, at least cousin Nigel will stoop to be my friend.

"Chill, kid, this isn't the last time you'll be late for something. And hey, it's something to talk about right?" Marie had guessed correctly, mainly from the before-mentioned color show that centered on his face, that her forced companion was severely over thinking their current predicament. She had adopted her what's ur problem attitude in an attempt to calm him down.

"Sorry, it's only that... I'd really wanted to well..."

"You're one of those over obsessive work, authority, school people aren't you?" Marie accused with fear in her voice "Oh, no, I'm not getting involved with another one of you!" She began mock shaking him "Pull yourself together man! Repeat after me, the... world... does... not... expect... me... to... be... perfect!" With every word she shook him by the shoulders. Without so much as another glance at him she let go and began walking out the door.

"Come on basket case lets go tell them why their early"

Bus followed with a dazed look.


End file.
